Although it is well known and extensively documented that seat belt usage saves millions of dollars in medical expenses, lost time at work, and perhaps most importantly, saves thousands of lives each month in the U.S. Alone, many people do not use seat belts because they refuse to take the time or they simply forget to use them. For example, a publication from the U.S. Department of Transportation from Feb. 15, 1996 disclosed that while the average health care cost for a belted driver in an accident was $110, for a non-belted driver it was $562. For victims who required hospital stays, the costs were $9,000 for a belted driver and $14,000 for a non-belted driver. (Document may be found at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/index.htm). Hence, it is extremely important to encourage seat belt usage. Although others have created devices in attempt to meet this objective, they have failed to achieve acceptable usage rates. All devices seen in the prior have failed because they could not achieve the combination of results that would be necessary to achieve the highest rate possible of seat belt usage. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") cites that wearing a seat belt is the single most important action that people can take to protect themselves from an accident. A recent NHTSA study concluded that 3 of every 5 motorist fatalities could have been avoided with the use of a safety belt. The health care costs of motor vehicle crashes is a national financial burden that must be reduced. Motor vehicle crashes remain a major public health problem for the nation as a whole. They are the number one cause of death and serious injury for young people ages 5 to 27 years. Data from the National Safety Council (Accident Facts, National Safety Council, 1995, p78) cites that motor vehicle deaths increased three percent from 1994 to 1995, mileage increased two percent, the number of registered vehicles increased one percent from 1994, while the population death rate increased two percent. Thus, there were 43,000 deaths, 2,300,000 disabling injuries and a cost of $170.6 billion dollars to society. This cost includes wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, administrative expenses, motor-vehicle property claims and employer costs. This enormous cost burden is a national problem, one that urgently needs to be solved. Unlike all prior devices, and regardless of the greater number of airbags in the vehicle fleet, for the third straight year in a row, the number of motor vehicle deaths and injuries has increased. This trend needs to be reversed.
Any device which could accurately monitor and document seat belt use would be of great value to insurance companies who can pass on a portion of their savings to consumers. Additionally, a device which can record information regarding vehicle travel such as direction of travel, duration of travel, speed of travel, and of course, seat belt usage during travel, could provide the government and insurance companies with invaluable information regarding vehicle usage and types and occurrences of accidents. And, a device which could display seat belt usage through the front windshield when all vehicle occupants are buckled up, could effectively and passively encourage seat belt use because a driver and vehicle occupants would note the large number of "complying" vehicles coming towards them. Peer pressure is a great source of behavior modification. Of course, a device which could display seat belt usage through the rear windshield would alert law enforcement personnel to the fact that not all vehicle occupants are buckled up, and they may be able to pull over the vehicle to ticket the driver. And finally, because many seat belt usage detection systems can be fooled by sitting on top of a seat belt, it would be useful to have an improved system seat belt detection system which is virtually foolproof.
There is also currently much interest in passively encouraging seat belt usage by providing constant audible warning signals and visible warning signals that a seat belt is not in use. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,733 issued to Conigliaro et. al, discloses an electrical system for providing an audible or visible warning and interior and exterior visible displays indicating whether the occupants of a motor vehicle have fastened their seat belts, in compliance with legal requirements. In such a manner, the vehicle occupants know that law enforcement personnel are readily alerted to the lack of seat belt usage, and since many states require seat belts to be worn, it is anticipated that all occupants will buckle up to avoid a traffic ticket. In some states, referred to as "primary seat belt usage" states, a vehicle can be stopped by police sole for lack of seat belt use. However, in "secondary seat belt usage" states, the vehicle must be stopped for another reason, and then if an occupant is not wearing a seat belt, a citation can issue for this offense.
However the Conigliaro system utilizes common belt latch sensors which may be defeated by sitting on the lap belt. Also, there is no on-going monitoring of whether the driver and the occupants regularly utilizes the seat belts, or if they only occasionally use the seat belts. As noted above, accidents are much more costly in terms of medical expenditures when a vehicle occupant does not wear a seat belt at the time of a collision. Thus, it behooves the driver, who is also generally the insurance purchaser to encourage vehicle occupants to utilize seat belts, nothing seen in the prior art readily accomplishes this result. Moreover, the Conigliaro system must be hard wired into the vehicle and it required constant maintenance. Furthermore it could not be readily used in any after market vehicles, which is a key desirable advantage in any seat belt monitoring system.
One patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,955 issued to Howard encourages vehicle occupants to utilize their seat belts by deactivating circuit controls which provide power to occupant comfort and convenience features of the automobile, including the radio, audio and heating/cooling system. The automobile will continue to function if the seat belts are not used, but at a generally undesirable loss of comfort and convenience features. Seat belt use will therefore be encouraged as it is less uncomfortable to use the seat belts than to omit their use, but the incentive to regularly use seat belt is still not strong, and the device still lacks a passive feature, which is sought by the National Highway Traffic Agency so that drivers can turn off the system, as desired. Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, the Howard device has the inadvertent effect of at least in some instances, actually decreasing motoring safety. For example, if the radio does not function, a driver cannot be altered to dangerous traffic conditions or adverse weather warnings, such as icing and hurricanes. Additionally, fog could build up on the inside of the vehicle glass, creating very dangerous visual limitations.
In yet another issued patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,407, issued to Ozmeral there is disclosed a seat belt monitoring system wherein a separate odometer is provided in the vehicle which is functional only when all the vehicle occupants use their seat belt. If the odometer reading, after a period of time, is fairly close to total miles traveled, this information can be used to decrease the insurer's insurance rates. This system still lacks a mechanism for recording and relaying information regarding seat belt usage during a collision, and does not provide any information regarding collision liability.
There are many patents which utilize GPS ("Global Positioning Systems") for a wide variety of purposes, including the tracking and retrieval of stolen vehicles, but there are none seen that monitor and track seat belt usage by the occupants of a vehicle. GPS is well known in the art and currently consists of a constellation of 24 satellites positioned around the earth which are operated by the US Department of Defense. They provide travelers with a constant fix on their locations. Air and sea pilots extensively use the system for navigation and such usage is well known in the prior art. A standard GPS receiver may obtain longitude and, latitude, velocity, direction of travel and absolute time. Although the signal is corrupted by the US government so that it is degraded to an accuracy of only 76 meters, there are numerous methods to correct the degradation to provide location information to come up with a revised position accurate to about 1 meter. There are additional methods to fine tune even this inaccuracy to a few millimeters. There are existing automobile navigation systems which, while not yet popular in the US, are in use in new vehicles in Japan.
These and other patents disclose a variety of systems regarding seat belt monitoring systems, systems which encourage seat belt usage, and the like, but nothing seen in the prior art can 1) record, in real time, seat belt usage, speed, duration and direction of travel by utilizing Global Positioning System ("GPS") technology; 2) detect seat belt usage using IR technology, making it difficult or impossible for the driver or vehicle occupants to fool the seat belt usage detection system; and, 3) display both through the front and rear windshields indicator lights which relate if the vehicle occupants are using their seat belts properly.
Also, in recent months there has been a great deal of concern regarding the safety of air bags where children or small women are concerned. As a result, it is anticipated that the driver and/or passenger will soon be able to disconnect his or her air bag, as desired. If and when this occurs, there will be an overwhelming concern to encourage proper seat belt use at all times, objectives which can be easily be met by the present invention. Further, it is well established that air bags are most effective in preventing injury or death when used in conjunction with seat belts. And, when injury has occurred from air bags, it is often associated with placement of the face or chest too close to the area of deployment. When seat belts are in use, they encourage vehicle occupants to sit back away from the area where air bags deploy from.